The eighth continent

A huh!, and you thought you knew your geography. Well, whatever you studied in school is ole skool (hip hop for old school). Here's some new school stuff: Ever wondered where all that trash and plastic that we see floating in the drains, rivers or at some corner of the beach end up? Wrong! only part of these trash get collected and find their way to landfills. The rest, sooner or later end up in the sea. For the past 60 years or so most of these trash have been gradually accumulating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean in an area known as the Plastic Vortex. The Plastic Vortex, AKA “the Asian Trash Trail”, the “Trash Vortex”, “Eastern Garbage Patch” or the "8th continent" lies in the North Pacific sub-tropical gyre, a vast area in which the water circulates clockwise in a slow spiral forcing any floating material into the low energy central area of the gyre (like a whirlpool). These floating materials got beached and started accumulating around the islands nearby and have finally formed a huge mass which some believe could be twice the size of the state of Texas.

Image taken from www.buffaloreadings.com

Watch this youtube video to know what kind of damage we have created:

A team of concerned intellectuals and professionals, with the support of the United Nations have now come together and will be going on an expedition to the North Pacific gyre to study how to capture plastic waste in the ocean, detoxify and recycle it into diesel fuel.

On our front, since the lack of political will is rather apparent, i think it's about time that we, the people, started taking some serious efforts to curb the free and wide usage of plastic products in Malaysia. We need to educate our children on the consequences of using non-biodegradable products as opposed to biodegradable ones. We need to educate them on the importance of recycling and how littering damages our environment and health.

The perception that plastic is recyclable is not exactly accurate. Plastic can be recycled, but remember that for any material that is recycled there will be a byproduct of waste that cannot be recycled. There is no way of recycling anything 100%. There will always be a byproduct and thereby always creating waste. For more misconceptions about plastic and its recycling go here.

Information on how to reduce use and recycle plastic is all over the internet. Google it!

For more info on plastic vortex, you can visit Project Kaisei, Greenpeace, Buffaloreadings.